OBSERVATIONS UPON THE FOREGOING DOCUMENT. 259 



of which the library of this Institution is in possession of a copy, 

 presented to them by me, some 1 7 years ago. 



Whether the peculiar claims of the Crown or its grantees were 

 founded on the supposed existence of precious metals {i.e. gold 

 or silver) in the ore, or on a much larger claim to the exclusive 

 prerogative of the sovereign to all subterranean metallic ores, is 

 a question which may be the subject of reasonable conjecture, but 

 not, in my opinion, of any conclusive decision. Mediaeval sover- 

 eigns acted on the principle, current among their own doctors of 

 the Law : — 



" Quicquid in occultis abscondit terra cavernis 

 Jure quidem nostrum est ; populo concessimus usum " ; 



and this larger claim is, in fact, the one now generally asserted 

 by the law of most of the continental countries of our hemi- 

 sphere, though it has long lost its hold in the United Kingdom. 



X 



